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Friday, January 25, 2013

Composed in Blood by Cindy Sprigg Review ~Kami


Composed in Blood

by 


This book was gifted to me by the author for an honest review. Thank You.

It has been awhile since I have read any Horror. My interest in books spans all genres. I used to read only Fantasy and Science Fiction, then I read only Stephen King, then I started reading Romance, but only Paranormal Romance, recently I started reading more Contemporary Romance. I also like reading YA, especially YA Dystopian. So now I feel like my reading interests have gone full circle back to Horror. I should pick up some Science Fiction/Fantasy while I am it. I used to be a fan of scary movies too, and I guess I still am though I haven't watched any in awhile. Slasher movies aren't something you can watch too many of with a small child in the house. I think a good horror tale should have just enough of the creepy and macabre to draw you in and keep you there quivering in terror until it's over. A good horror story makes you jump at strange noises in the night. A good horror story is something you remember long after you've finished reading it. Cindy Sprigg's book drew me in with the very first line and didn't let go.

The son of an incestuous relationship, Tommy lives in a shack surrounded by the bodies of his dead grandparents. Tommy was horribly abused by his grandmother and he grows up to be a crazed killer. A down on his luck writer, Jake, finds a body and thinks he may be on the verge of finding a really great, scary story. Jake is drawn into Tommy's madness. “The novel was now telling him he must supply victims to feed the boy, to feed it. The novel was everything; the story was his soul.”

The writing in this book is amazing. It is descriptive and full of tension. The pacing is perfect. “A tale designed to make the reader both afraid to turn the page, but at the same time afraid not to.” The story is twisted, messed up, bloody and scary. But it is also kind of sad. I feel sympathetic towards poor, crazy, killer Tommy. If you like Silence of the Lambs, Dexter, Psycho, or Saw than you will appreciate Composed in Blood. The dynamic between Jake and Tommy also reminded me of the 2006 movie Bug with Ashley Judd, based on a play, about the disorder where one person is drawn into another person's delusion.

The book is amazingly terrifying and after reading it you may need to sleep with a light on. Tommy and Max's story is one full of pain, blood and death. And Jake's descent into madness is seriously twisted. There is so much going on in this book. Sprigg seamlessly collects several fragments and weaves them into a whole. Thank you for this amazingly, disturbed, twisted tale, oh Mistress of the Macabre. After reading it all I could think was 'Wow'. 5 stars.

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